NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The University of New haven men's soccer team earned its first point in a match against Southern Connecticut State University in more than 16 years as the Chargers forged a hard fought 0-0 draw against the Owls in a Northeast-10 Conference match on Tuesday evening. With the tie, New Haven is now 3-2-1 overall and 0-2-1 in the NE-10. 

KEY PLAYERS

·         Pablo Perez (Medellin, Columbia/West Haven), Rob Poirier (Old Lyme, Conn./Lyme-Old Lyme) and Ben Lamb (Keighley, England/Oakbank) each had two shots for New Haven.

·         Stefano Lorusso (Auckland, New Zealand/Sacred Heart College) faced 13 shots and made one save in completing his third clean sheet of the season

HOW IT HAPPENED

·         The Chargers controlled the run of play in the first half, outshooting SCSU 8-4. Towards the end of the period, Aurochit Patnaik (Mumbai, India/St. Benedict's Prep (N.J.)) whistled a ball just to the left of the goal, sending the match into the half scoreless.

·         In the 69th minute, New Haven had a free kick from the left side of the box. Poirier served the ball into the mixer where it was headed on by Mason Rivera (Preston, Conn./Norwich Free Academy) near the goal line, but Noah Varonier smothered the ball before Rivera could send the second attempt across. 

·         With four seconds remaining, Lorusso made a diving stop to punch an Owls' shot away to send the match to overtime.

BY THE NUMBERS

·         It was the first result in a match for New Haven against Southern Connecticut State since Sept. 1, 2000, a contest that also ended in a 0-0 draw. 

·         The two teams were nearly even in shots with SCSU holding a slight 13-11 edge. 

UP NEXT
The Chargers return to action on Saturday, Sept. 24 when they host Assumption in a Northeast-10 Conference match. Kickoff at Kayo Field is set for 4:00 p.m.